Frederick:I've always wanted to ask a scientologist, why -why did you decide to be a scientologist?

I think it's pretty easy to explain.

In the beginning, you're lured in by the very bootstrappy mindset of tackling your own problems and taking control of your life. At this point, there's a lot of support for you from other members, so you begin to develop an attachment to them and grow uncomfortable with outsiders who begin to be seen as people who will weigh you down. My guess is that most people stay at this level for the entirety of their religious life with them.

After a while, you've learned techniques that allow you to control your emotions and this empowers you to act in very aggressive ways without getting caught up in your own sense of humility or empathy. People are there to be used, and you are there to use them. It preys on the tendency of people to go along and get along. The truly sociopathic make it to this level and stay there becoming more sociopathic.

Along the way, you've unwittingly (or wittingly) been divulging your secrets to the church, and any attempt to break away is thwarted by the threat of blackmail or worse.

So it's not a religion that asks you to accept it all at once. You're gradually eased in. The teachings are both allegorical and prescriptive. You learn how to take control of your own life and emotions, and the sense of belonging and support keeps most people involved, much like a regular religion.

So it's not a religion that asks you to accept it all at once. You're gradually eased in. The teachings are both allegorical and prescriptive. You learn how to take control of your own life and emotions, and the sense of belonging and support keeps most people involved, much like a regular religion.

Except that, unlike every other religion, you have to pay through the teeth for the enlightenment. If you go to a Rabbi and ask him about Judaism, he'll gladly talk to you for free. Same with every priest, pastor, imam, priestess or whatever you want. Many will happily give you information, maybe even a copy of their holy books--which, incidentally, can also be found in any library, or openly for sale. In Scientology, you have to pay for the books, which cannot be found anywhere else and are not sold to outsiders. If you feel awful and need to talk, Pastor is there for you. In Scientology, you have to pay. And pay, and pay, and pay. It's not at all unusual to hear of people who sank several hundred thousand dollars into it.

So it's not a religion that asks you to accept it all at once. You're gradually eased in. The teachings are both allegorical and prescriptive. You learn how to take control of your own life and emotions, and the sense of belonging and support keeps most people involved, much like a regular religion.

Except that, unlike every other religion, you have to pay through the teeth for the enlightenment. If you go to a Rabbi and ask him about Judaism, he'll gladly talk to you for free. Same with every priest, pastor, imam, priestess or whatever you want. Many will happily give you information, maybe even a copy of their holy books--which, incidentally, can also be found in any library, or openly for sale. In Scientology, you have to pay for the books, which cannot be found anywhere else and are not sold to outsiders. If you feel awful and need to talk, Pastor is there for you. In Scientology, you have to pay. And pay, and pay, and pay. It's not at all unusual to hear of people who sank several hundred thousand dollars into it.

And a professor of English may love to chat with you about Shakespeare on Sunday afternoons at the park, but if you really want to learn at a deep level you're going to have to pay up.

AverageAmericanGuy:And a professor of English may love to chat with you about Shakespeare on Sunday afternoons at the park, but if you really want to learn at a deep level you're going to have to pay up.

Not unless the professor was alive during Shakespeare's time and knew Shakespeare.. I wouldn't pay a dime.

AverageAmericanGuy:Frederick: I've always wanted to ask a scientologist, why -why did you decide to be a scientologist?

I think it's pretty easy to explain.

In the beginning, you're lured in by the very bootstrappy mindset of tackling your own problems and taking control of your life. At this point, there's a lot of support for you from other members, so you begin to develop an attachment to them and grow uncomfortable with outsiders who begin to be seen as people who will weigh you down. My guess is that most people stay at this level for the entirety of their religious life with them.

After a while, you've learned techniques that allow you to control your emotions and this empowers you to act in very aggressive ways without getting caught up in your own sense of humility or empathy. People are there to be used, and you are there to use them. It preys on the tendency of people to go along and get along. The truly sociopathic make it to this level and stay there becoming more sociopathic.

Along the way, you've unwittingly (or wittingly) been divulging your secrets to the church, and any attempt to break away is thwarted by the threat of blackmail or worse.

So it's not a religion that asks you to accept it all at once. You're gradually eased in. The teachings are both allegorical and prescriptive. You learn how to take control of your own life and emotions, and the sense of belonging and support keeps most people involved, much like a regular religion.

People are stupid.

/just kidding, that was a very insightful answer//people really are stupid

So it's not a religion that asks you to accept it all at once. You're gradually eased in. The teachings are both allegorical and prescriptive. You learn how to take control of your own life and emotions, and the sense of belonging and support keeps most people involved, much like a regular religion.

Except that, unlike every other religion, you have to pay through the teeth for the enlightenment. If you go to a Rabbi and ask him about Judaism, he'll gladly talk to you for free. Same with every priest, pastor, imam, priestess or whatever you want. Many will happily give you information, maybe even a copy of their holy books--which, incidentally, can also be found in any library, or openly for sale. In Scientology, you have to pay for the books, which cannot be found anywhere else and are not sold to outsiders. If you feel awful and need to talk, Pastor is there for you. In Scientology, you have to pay. And pay, and pay, and pay. It's not at all unusual to hear of people who sank several hundred thousand dollars into it.

Hell, Bob only asks for $30, and he offers triple money back in the event that you don't happen to get eternal salvation.

A religion with aliens would actually make more sense than the Bible. The real problem with Scientology is that it's way too new so it doesn't have the mythical mystique of the ancient religions have. It's the same issue Mormons have and more people think those two religion are cults than the traditional religions.

TheJoe03:A religion with aliens would actually make more sense than the Bible. The real problem with Scientology is that it's way too new so it doesn't have the mythical mystique of the ancient religions have. It's the same issue Mormons have and more people think those two religion are cults than the traditional religions.

I don't think it is mystique so much as the fact that we don't really know a lot about the authors of the Bible except the whitewashed history from their followers, but we KNOW that L. Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith were both con men who we shouldn't trust further than we can throw them.

That phrase seems to be dragged out every time someone mentions Scientology. I think it's about time that it was put to rest.

Most religions come from a mixture of folk tales and basic survival rules passed down generation to generation over hundreds of years, and mangled a bit during the journey. They're pretty much what you'd expect any ancient mythology to be after such a long passage of time, warts and all. There is likely to be some nugget of truth at their core, even if the content has been "made better" so many times, that it's about as historically accurate as the tales of Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry.

Scientology is bullsh*t through and through. Hubbard created it as a bar bet, wrote it down exactly as it is, and it therefore has no excuse.

Frederick:I've always wanted to ask a scientologist, why -why did you decide to be a scientologist?

Same reason anyone joins any other religion. They're either indoctrinated in early childhood into whatever the local religion happens to be, or they're "converted" by people who pretend to be their friends -- and sometimes actually are their friends -- in a time of personal weakness or upheaval.

So it's not a religion that asks you to accept it all at once. You're gradually eased in. The teachings are both allegorical and prescriptive. You learn how to take control of your own life and emotions, and the sense of belonging and support keeps most people involved, much like a regular religion.

Except that, unlike every other religion, you have to pay through the teeth for the enlightenment. If you go to a Rabbi and ask him about Judaism, he'll gladly talk to you for free. Same with every priest, pastor, imam, priestess or whatever you want. Many will happily give you information, maybe even a copy of their holy books--which, incidentally, can also be found in any library, or openly for sale. In Scientology, you have to pay for the books, which cannot be found anywhere else and are not sold to outsiders. If you feel awful and need to talk, Pastor is there for you. In Scientology, you have to pay. And pay, and pay, and pay. It's not at all unusual to hear of people who sank several hundred thousand dollars into it.

And a professor of English may love to chat with you about Shakespeare on Sunday afternoons at the park, but if you really want to learn at a deep level you're going to have to pay up.

You ever see how much college costs these days?

All the information about shakespeare is available at low cost. You can walk into any bookstore with $100 and walk out with the (annotated) collected works. You can study the shiat out of those, in combination with hundreds of online fora, where people are willing to have in depth discussions, it isn't hard to become an expert. I'm pretty sure that there are enough free resources on good ol' Bill to keep people learning for years.

Scientology won't even tell you about Xenu before you have a few (tens of) thousands dollars invested in the "religion".

I read that as: 'Tiny cult dude dungeoned his beard the instant he met slightly-less-vertically-challenged Tom Cruise so tiny cult dude could make with the woowoo love talk in Tomster's sound holes without bearded lady threatening to call Ronnie on planet Xenu every five seconds.'

Mad_Radhu:TheJoe03: A religion with aliens would actually make more sense than the Bible. The real problem with Scientology is that it's way too new so it doesn't have the mythical mystique of the ancient religions have. It's the same issue Mormons have and more people think those two religion are cults than the traditional religions.

I don't think it is mystique so much as the fact that we don't really know a lot about the authors of the Bible except the whitewashed history from their followers, but we KNOW that L. Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith were both con men who we shouldn't trust further than we can throw them.

That's kind of what I mean, it's so old that we know little about the authors and it seems more mysterious and mystical just based on the fact that it was written so long ago. If the Bible came out right now it would not be followed by many people.

Frederick:I've always wanted to ask a scientologist, why -why did you decide to be a scientologist?

Think of it like an extremely bad, extremely expensive MMO. It starts off fun, but progressively, imperceptibly, the grind increases, the micropayments increase, and every time you level up it becomes that much harder for you want to leave. A few brain wash cycles later and you're head banging cult member.

Cosmic_Music:if only there were some sort of bureau that could federally investigate this

/who ya gonna call

Yes, I'm sure after the IRS was called out for investigating groups whose primary purpose was to avoid paying taxes, they'll try and challenge the tax-exempt status of a religious organization. I'm sure no one will have a problem with that.

IlGreven:Cosmic_Music: if only there were some sort of bureau that could federally investigate this

/who ya gonna call

Yes, I'm sure after the IRS was called out for investigating groups whose primary purpose was to avoid paying taxes, they'll try and challenge the tax-exempt status of a religious organization. I'm sure no one will have a problem with that.

Emphasis mine.....

/Granted, now I kinda want to know what we'd call a federal organization that was the BFI....

Frederick:I've always wanted to ask a scientologist, why -why did you decide to be a scientologist?

I give you one of their "you must be a pedophile" routine but I don't have it in me. Just check some of the YouTube vids of people trying to ask questions. They're not pleasant once they get entrenched. In a strange bit of projection, they become what they'd call repressive personalities.

Khazar-Khum:Except that, unlike every other religion, you have to pay through the teeth for the enlightenment. If you go to a Rabbi and ask him about Judaism, he'll gladly talk to you for free. Same with every priest, pastor, imam, priestess or whatever you want. Many will happily give you information, maybe even a copy of their holy books--which, incidentally, can also be found in any library, or openly for sale. In Scientology, you have to pay for the books, which cannot be found anywhere else and are not sold to outsiders. If you feel awful and need to talk, Pastor is there for you. In Scientology, you have to pay. And pay, and pay, and pay. It's not at all unusual to hear of people who sank several hundred thousand dollars into it

So what you are saying is that it is an esoteric religion, that takes money up front, rather than for example Christian religions which mostly are already so rich they can take the risk and mostly get paid when their marks die and give the church lots of money in their wills? And they are more recent so their origins as a scam to enrich and empower the people running the religion haven't had long enough to be obscured?